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Sensor-Web Experiments Advance Earth Science

Monday, 01 July 2013

NASA funds more atmospheric research by far than any other
government agency or private concern internationally. More
than 100 different instruments have been developed and flown
in support of NASA airborne science missions during more than
three decades of investigation, most of which were designed,
built, and are maintained by various NASA field centers, by universities,
or by other government agencies such as NOAA.

The airborne science program within the Earth Science
Division performs in-situ atmospheric measurements at varying
altitudes and horizontal resolutions, and tests new sensor
technologies for satellite application. The emphasis is on data
acquisition for climate science: carbon cycling, atmospheric
pollution, atmospheric dynamics, and exploring the genesis of
large convective storms — in particular, how hurricanes develop
from disturbances that originate on the west coast of Africa.

Most missions are driven by objectives specified in the
National Research Council Decadal Survey for Earth Science.
The NRC conducts studies to obtain a scientific community
consensus on key questions posed by NASA and other government
agencies. NASA and its partners ask the NRC once each
decade to look forward ten or more years and prioritize
research areas, observations, and national missions to make
those observations. In turn, NASA Earth Science immediately
implemented several sharply targeted investigations the
most recent NRC Decadal Survey identified as quick-turnaround
projects lasting five years or less.

One quick-turnaround project, the Airborne Tropical
Tropopause Experi ment (ATTREX), is improving understanding
of the processes that control the flow of atmospheric
gases in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere by
studying chemical and physical processes at different times of
the year. Another such project is the Carbon Arctic Reservoirs
Vulnerability Experi ment, which is investigating Arctic carbon
cycling.

The ability to network arrays of different instruments within
and among aircraft for simultaneous data acquisition, in coordination
with satellite sensors, advances a suite of new atmospheric
investigations by NASA Earth Science.

Science Research and InstrumentationNASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Question of the Week

This week's Question: Last week, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, said that the electric car maker would introduce autonomous technology, an autopilot mode, by this summer; the technology will allow drivers to have their vehicles take control...